Straight answers to the questions you'd ask before committing time or money to anything new. If your question isn't here, ask us directly.
TapTheMap is operated by Technology Assessment Project LLC (TAP), an Illinois limited liability company founded by Matt Overeem. Matt works directly with every client — when you reach out, you're talking to the person who built the platform, not a sales team. TAP carries general business liability insurance and is registered with the Illinois Secretary of State.
TapTheMap launched in 2026 after two years of development and testing. The NFC wayfinding concept was developed from Matt's professional background in Geographic Information Systems, RFID technology, and 34 years of public infrastructure management at the municipal level.
Matt holds a degree in Geography and Urban Studies from Northwestern University and a Master of Public Administration from Roosevelt University. His professional certifications include GIS, Electronic Technology, Construction Project Management, and Wind Power Technology — a career spent at the intersection of spatial thinking and practical technology.
We're a new company and are actively building our venue portfolio. To demonstrate the platform at realistic scale, we built a working demo using Brookfield Zoo Chicago's publicly available venue map — a 216-acre campus with over 2 million annual visitors. You can try the live demo right now and see exactly what a guest would experience after tapping an NFC sticker.
We're happy to walk you through the demo in detail and discuss how TapTheMap would work at your specific venue. We can use an existing map your venue already has, or work with you to obtain the right map for your needs — we provide guidance material that outlines the ideal map specifications for phone-screen wayfinding. As client deployments go live, case studies with measurable results will be published on our Venues page.
Yes. Technology Assessment Project LLC carries general business liability insurance. If your venue requires a certificate of insurance for vendor onboarding, we can provide one. We understand that publicly funded venues — zoos, botanical gardens, museums — often have procurement requirements, and we're prepared to meet them.
If you cancel your subscription, we'll work with you on a 30-day transition period. During that window, your map remains live so you have time to remove or cover the stickers at your own pace.
After the transition period, sticker taps will redirect to a neutral landing page explaining that the map is no longer available — not to an error page, not to a competitor, and not to anything embarrassing. Your stickers will never serve content you haven't approved.
You retain full ownership of any map files you provided to us.
Yes. Any map files you provide remain your intellectual property. We optimize them for phone-screen delivery, but we do not claim any ownership over your maps, branding, or venue data.
If you cancel, we'll export your analytics history on request. We do not sell, share, or repurpose your data for any reason.
Yes. If your venue is seasonal, we offer a seasonal hold with an ongoing monthly site maintenance fee that keeps your map URL active and your NFC stickers functional year-round. The hold fee is $19–$39/month depending on your tier — significantly less than the full monthly subscription. This covers keeping your map URL active, your NFC stickers working, and your system ready for reopening.
Before each season, we'll work with you to make sure everything is ready — verifying sticker condition, updating your map if the venue layout has changed, and confirming that analytics are active for opening day. The goal is to make sure your wayfinding is live and current the moment your first guests arrive.
Contact us to discuss your venue's specific calendar and we'll build a plan that fits.
Additional stickers beyond your tier's included set are $15 each, or $12 each for orders up to 20. For orders above 20, contact us for volume pricing. Each sticker is pre-programmed with your venue's unique URL, write-locked so it can't be tampered with, and sealed with tamper-evident weatherproof adhesive.
Replacement stickers for damaged or lost tags are provided at no additional charge — contact us and we'll ship replacements.
Yes. We offer a 60-day pilot program with a reduced setup fee — $149 for Starter, $199 for Growth, or $299 for Campus. You get the same stickers, the same hosting, and the same admin panel as a full deployment. The monthly subscription rate stays the same during the pilot.
If you decide to continue after 60 days, your pilot setup fee is credited toward the full setup fee — you only pay the difference. If you decide TapTheMap isn't right for your venue, you owe nothing more.
The pilot is designed to let you test the full platform with real guests at your actual venue before making a larger commitment. Request a demo and mention the pilot program.
Most guests don't need to know what NFC is — they just need to see a sign that says "Tap your phone here for the venue map." The interaction is intuitive: hold your phone near the sticker, and a notification appears. That's it.
Guests who use Apple Pay, Google Pay, or contactless transit cards are already performing this exact gesture dozens of times a week — they just don't think of it as "NFC." For guests unfamiliar with tapping, the sign itself is instructional, and staff can demonstrate the entire interaction in about three seconds.
Industry data from the NFC Forum indicates that over 90% of smartphones sold since 2020 include NFC capability, and contactless payment adoption in the U.S. exceeded 50% of in-store transactions in 2024.
NFC is supported on all iPhones from iPhone 7 (2016) forward and virtually all Android phones manufactured since 2015. The oldest phones your guests are likely carrying already support it.
More importantly, the gesture is simpler than any alternative. Scanning a QR code requires opening the camera app, framing the code, waiting for recognition, and then tapping a link. Tapping an NFC sticker requires holding the phone near a sticker — one motion, no apps, no camera, no aiming. For guests with vision or dexterity concerns, NFC is actually more accessible than QR codes.
For the small number of guests with phones that don't support NFC, your map is also accessible via a standard URL that can be printed on nearby signage as a fallback. No guest is left without access.
Yes. Every deployment includes downloadable signage templates in multiple sizes — tabletop tent cards, wall-mount signs, and kiosk-format graphics — all with clear "Tap your phone here" messaging and a visual illustration of the gesture.
You can customize these with your venue's branding, colors, and logo, or we can provide branded versions as part of the setup process. The goal is to make the sticker self-explanatory — a guest who has never heard of NFC should understand what to do from the sign alone.
The NFC tap itself requires no internet connection — it's an on-device interaction between the phone's NFC reader and the passive sticker. No data is transmitted to any server during the tap.
The map loads via the guest's cellular or WiFi connection once they choose to open the link. We optimize every map for the smallest possible file size — typically under 500KB — to ensure fast loading even on weak 3G signals. Most venue maps load in under three seconds on a standard LTE connection. If your venue has guest WiFi, the map will load over WiFi automatically.
If connectivity is a concern at your venue, we offer an optional site connectivity study, starting at $250 and quoted per venue based on location and size. The study includes travel to your venue, signal strength testing at all planned NFC sticker locations, and a written report with placement recommendations. For venues with complex infrastructure — underground spaces, thick concrete, large steel-frame buildings — we can also work with you to obtain the services of a local professional site survey firm to ensure reliable coverage before deployment.
NFC is supported on all iPhones since the iPhone 7 (2016) and virtually all Android phones since 2015. This covers the vast majority of devices in active use today.
For the small percentage of guests with older devices, we include the map's direct URL on all signage placed near the NFC stickers. Guests can type the short URL into their browser manually — the same map loads either way. NFC is the primary interaction; the URL is the fallback.
Most venues are live within 5–7 business days of providing their map file. The process: you send us your map (PDF or PNG, under 2 MB, sRGB color space) → we optimize it for phone screens → we program and ship your NFC stickers → you mount them and go live. If you need a map created or redesigned, we can provide guidance or connect you with a designer, which may add time depending on scope.
TapTheMap is hosted on dedicated infrastructure — a private virtual server running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with HTTPS encryption, automated backups, and continuous process monitoring. We do not use shared hosting or serverless platforms that introduce unpredictable cold starts.
Our target uptime is 99.9%. Maps are served as static assets, meaning even during brief server maintenance windows, cached versions remain available to guests through browser caching and CDN behavior. In practice, your map is always available.
Yes. You can explore an interactive preview of the admin panel right now — click through the tabs to see how map uploads, analytics, sticker management, and settings work. The preview uses sample data from a fictional venue so you can see the full interface without needing an account. During the demo process, you’ll also get hands-on access with your own venue’s map.
Most venues have an existing map — a brochure, a printed handout, a PDF on their website. We can work with what you already have. We'll optimize it for phone-screen viewing: adjusting colors, label sizes, and file weight so it loads fast and reads clearly at mobile viewport size.
If you don't have a map, or your current one isn't suitable, we'll work with you to obtain the right map for your venue. We provide guidance material that outlines the ideal map specifications — file formats, resolution, labeling conventions, color contrast, and what makes a venue map effective on a phone screen. If you need a map designed or redrawn, we can point you toward design professionals who specialize in venue cartography.
The goal is to meet you wherever you are. Whether you hand us a polished PDF or a napkin sketch, we'll help you get from there to a working phone-optimized map.
TapTheMap stickers use tamper-evident adhesive that visibly defaces if someone tries to peel them off, and the NFC tags are write-locked so the stored URL cannot be reprogrammed.
If a sticker is physically damaged or lost, replacement stickers are included at no additional charge. Contact us and we'll ship pre-programmed replacements to your venue. Most venues keep one or two spares on hand for quick swap-outs.
TapTheMap's hosting runs on automated infrastructure that operates without manual intervention. Your venue map is served as a static file from a dedicated server with automated process management (PM2), automated SSL certificate renewal, and automated daily backups. The system is designed to run unattended — your map stays live even if we're not actively at a keyboard.
Our uptime is independently monitored by UptimeRobot, with real-time status available on our Status page.
For venues that require formal business continuity provisions — publicly funded institutions, organizations with board oversight — we can discuss DNS escrow and map file export arrangements to ensure your wayfinding service remains available regardless of circumstances. Contact us to discuss your specific requirements.
QR codes are a proven technology. NFC is a better one — for venues, for guests, and for the operator who has to maintain it.
| Dimension | NFC (TapTheMap) | QR Code |
|---|---|---|
| Guest interaction | Hold phone near sticker — one gesture | Open camera, frame code, wait, tap link — four steps |
| Works in rain / direct sunlight | Yes — no visual scanning required | Degraded — glare, water on lens, faded print |
| Works through phone cases | Yes — NFC reads through most cases | N/A — camera is on outside of phone |
| Accessibility (low vision, dexterity) | Better — no aiming, no camera focus required | Requires visual alignment of camera |
| Tamper resistance | Write-locked, tamper-evident adhesive | Trivially spoofable — anyone can paste over a QR code |
| Visual clutter | Clean, discreet sticker with branding | Dense black-and-white matrix pattern |
| Durability | Weatherproof, no ink to fade | Ink fades, paper degrades outdoors |
| Guest data collected | None | Varies by provider |
| Cost | Subscription-based | Free to generate |
Yes, QR codes are free to generate. But the sticker is the smallest part of what you're paying for. TapTheMap includes map hosting, phone-screen optimization, admin panel access, unlimited map updates, signage templates, and ongoing support. Analytics are available as an add-on. A QR code gives you a link — TapTheMap gives you a wayfinding platform. See pricing →
For security-specific comparisons, see our NFC Safety page →
Ask directly, or request a demo and see the answers for yourself.